Monday, June 29, 2009

When I first moved to Abu Dhabi two years ago, I refused to drive the Lexus Q bought, why? Because I was a new driver and I knew better to practice on something cheaper and more basic. And what do you know, three days after I got a rental, I had a fender-bender in the crazy parking lot!

So I am just going to be the dumb child in the Emperor's new clothes parade and say it flat out, "The UAE doesn't have relevant qualifications!" A quick search on "Germany renewable energy" returned 4.6 million results, whereas "UAE renewable energy" 322 thousands, that's 7%! Similarly "Canada sports" returned 1.76 billion results, whereas "UAE sports" only give me 6.8 million, that's less than 1%! Let's face it, with UAE being the most wasteful country and has far fewer sports facilities than shopping malls, I fail to see how these monuments can be erected on tooth picks. (All you nerds out there, don't even think about proving this.)

The main reason UAE wants them is publicity - the international gigs would make fancy show-off toys. I welcome their interests in the subject matters, but maybe they should consider practice in a Toyota first before bulldozing down the roads with their Mercedez-Benz.

Photo taken in AD traffic by a colleage. Can you tell how shiny the car was???

Monday, June 22, 2009

Just thought to share with everyone some of my, what I call, "Abu Dhabi Moments".

Moment #1: The following is from a recent The National article. Keep in mind that compared to her fellow young country men/women, this young Emirati woman is significantly more motivated - she has her own boutique store! Note I used the word *has*. I can't tell how much she *runs* it since all she talked about is how much fun it is to *buy* for the store. Yipee!

Image courtesy of The National

"When I was younger, I was really not into fashion. My sister used to wear this crazy silver lipstick – it was very 1990s – but I wasn’t interested. Then suddenly one day I had a problem and I just felt like letting go. I went and bought a bag from Louis Vuitton and I’ve been a shopaholic ever since. It was the turning point."

Moment #2: I saw this with my own eyes while walking home the other day. A guy had two cell phones against his ears, one on each side, driving car with his elbows. I was